my wife and I will be cruisiig the med aboard Celebrities Millenium in June. The ship calls at 8 ports of call, we are planning to take an organised tour in Venice, Civitavecchia (for Rome), and Livorno (for Pisa).

Due to limited budget, for the other ports of call we were hoping to do it ourselves. can anyone advise on the feasability (any tips, hints, suggested ittineraries, would be welcome) of this for the following ports of call:

my wife and I will be cruisiig the med aboard Celebrities Millenium in June. The ship calls at 8 ports of call, we are planning to take an organised tour in Venice, Civitavecchia (for Rome), and Livorno (for Pisa).

Due to limited budget, for the other ports of call we were hoping to do it ourselves. can anyone advise on the feasability (any tips, hints, suggested ittineraries, would be welcome) of this for the following ports of call:

We did a Med cruise last year to some of the same ports, so I hope I can help you with your question.

Dubrovnik is no problem at all - the towm is small enough to walk around on your own. To orient yourself, start with a walk around the town wall, or at least a part of it. This will give you a good idea of the layout of the place. You pay once to go up onto the wall and can come down at any number of places as you have had enough. We paid for it and for everything else in Dubrovnik in Euros.

In Piraes, we hailed a taxi at the port and went straight to the Acropolis. They will quote about 25 Euro, but we bargained down to 15. We spent a couple of hours at the Acroplois and then hailed another taxi to go back to the port.

We were on a Princess cruise last year and stopped in both Naples and Venice. We took tours in Venice, glass factory, lace making, although we could have done this on our own, time schedules don't always permit independent travel. People were extra patient with tourists and most everyone we encountered spoke English.

In Naples we were on our own in the downtown area, just a short walk from the port, and had the best pizza and wine of our life. We had already taken a ship sponsored trip to Pompeii in the AM..about 30 miles away. Enjoy!

We are also on the Mille leaving 04 June We have room in an 8 passenger van we for another couple for guided tour from Civitavecchi to Rome. The cost is 82 euros per person -- paid to driver at end of tour.
We also have room for another couple in Naples. This tour takes us Pompeii, Sorrento & Amalfi Coast (Positano & one or 2 other towns along the way) The cost for this trip is 59 euros per person paid to the tour guide at the end of the trip. If anyone is interested contact me at my email address.

Some ports can be done on your own but Rome and Florence are very difficult because of the distance from the port to the city.

You may want to know about this company www.portcompass.com I heard about on cruisecritic. Many people have used they and seem to be very pleased. Anyway I'm doing Rome and Florence private tours with them-- believe it or not, about 75% less than Celebrity's so-called "exclusive" small tours. Not that I would ever paid the $345 Celebrity is asking!

Anyway check out portcompass--MUCH MORE reasonable than the ship's prices. Thought you might appreciate the tip!

I leave tomorrow for a cruise on the Millenium -same itinerary. I plan to work on a mega-review of the cruise for CruiseReviews.com, but also plan to do a full report on the ports for PortReviews.com. Look for the info upon my return.
Nancy